"Someone just asked me whether, now that Novell's become buddies with Microsoft, I'll be turning away from Novell/SUSE as one of my favorite Linux distributions. My answer is no. I'm sticking with SUSE Linux on both my desktops and servers. Here's why."

I'm a system administrator for a very Microsoft centric company, and I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole affair, but I will say this.

I think I'll have a much easier time encouraging customers to switch to a Linux distribution that has (on the face of things) an endorsement from Microsoft and the support of a company with a familiar name that conjures memories of the old workhorse Netware, which drove many businesses off impossibly meagre hardware for years in the 90s.

Even Microsoft's announcement that there may be IP issues with other Linux distributions doesn't necessarily bode badly for Linux in general. It just means that people worried about IP problems with Linux have a clear course now.

Those who doubt that Microsoft would want to be seen making trouble for their competitors (myself included), or who live in a software-patent free regime (myself included), need not pay any attention to Microsoft's announcement.

Finally, to anyone who is being forced by their employer to migrate to SuSE because of Microsoft's FUD regarding this agreement, my condolences. But at least you still get to work with Linux.